Although the majority of patients with CML respond well to imatinib, a minority of patients have relapsed. This part of the lecture will cover what has been learned about mechanisms of relapse and how this information has been translated into new therapies for patients with imatinib resistance. Although imatinib is a relatively specific inhibitor of the ABL kinase, a couple of other kinases, KIT and the platelet derived growth factor receptor are also inhibited by imatinib. This use of this...

In the third segment of my seminar, I address a new frontier in cell biology, that is how cells respond to mechanical information. Cells and tissues are exposed to physical forces in vivo and excessive mechanical stress leads to a variety of pathological consequences. I describe a system for exposing cells to controlled mechanical stress and discuss the stretch response. We have discovered that the focal adhesion protein, zyxin, is exquisitely sensitive to mechanical stimulation and is...